Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Columbus Blue Jackets (12-14-3, 27 points) and Pittsburgh Penguins (20-10-1, 41 points) go head-to-head in the third of five meetings this season live from the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. The game can be live streamed here. Columbus fans can hear all the action on Sports Radio 97.1 The Fan while Pittsburgh fans can do the same on WXDX 105.9 FM.
Columbus enters play looking for revenge after Pittsburgh took the first two games of the season series with wins on back-to-back nights of a home-and-home that saw the Penguins win 4-2 in Pittsburgh on Nov. 1 and then again in Columbus on Nov. 2 by a 3-0 margin.
The Penguins held a 2-1 lead for most of the night Saturday against the Boston Bruins but eventually gave it up and lost 3-2 in regulation.
"We have to find a way to close that out," center Brandon Sutter told NHL.com. "That's just one of those games on the road against a good team that you have to win when you're up by a goal late like that. You have to find a way to close it out."
With reigning Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky (groin) sidelined for the Blue Jackets, Curtis McElhinney notched his first win since Bobrovsky went down in between the pipes by making 20 saves in a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
''It's a good feeling for me to step in here again and have another shutout game, another win,'' McElhinney said. ''Hopefully, it's the start of something good and we can keep it going.''
McElhinney is 2-3-1 with a 2,02 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage for the Blue Jackets this year. The Penguins counter with Marc-Andre Fleury, who is 16-8-1 with a 2.05 GAA and a .920 save percentage.
Fleury will look to stop a Columbus group that is led by Ryan Johansen who has 22 points off of 12 goals and 10 assists while James Wisniewski has 18 points off of two tallies and 16 helpers, but he is sidelined for about a week with an upper-body injury.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby leads the league with 42 points and has 15 goals while being tied for second in the league with 27 assists and has an eight-game point streak. Chris Kunitz is third on the team with 31 points in 31 games while ranking fourth in the league in goals (17) while he also has 14 assists. Evgeni Malkin is second on the team in scoring (7-30-37), but is a game-time decision with a lower-body injury.
The Blue Jackets hope that McElhinney will stay solid in between the pipes for them while the Penguins look to notch their third win against Columbus in three tries this season when these teams go head-to-head tonight in Pittsburgh.
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